Which performances are Tony Award front-runners?
Continuing our podcast series with David Sheward, I had a separate chat with the executive editor of Back Stage about the brightest performances on Broadway that might gain Tony's notice. CLICK HERE to downloaded the MP3 files and listen to podcast. (Note: You may need to hold down your computer's control key while clicking.)
Sheward cites such standouts as Claire Danes ("Pygmalion"), Morgan Freeman ("The Country Girl"), James Earl Jones ("Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), Andrea Martin ("Young Frankenstein"), S. Epatha Merkerson ("Come Back, Little Sheba"), Ian McShane ("The Homecoming") and Lin-Manuel Miranda ("In the Heights").
Also: Kevin Kline ("Cyrano de Bergerac"), "though the production was not as good as his performance," he adds.
"My personal favorite is Deanna Dunagan, who plays the pill-popping drug addict mother who's crazy" in "August: Osage County," he notes. "I thought it was a fantastic performance. I'm not sure if they submitted her for lead or supporting, but no matter where she's put, she should win. I haven't seen a performance like that in a very long time. However, people don't know who she is. She's not a star. We'll see what her chances are."
"Of course Patti LuPone will definitely get a nomination for 'Gypsy,' " Sheward says. "Whoever gets that role, gets a nomination. Whether they win is a whole other story. Tyne Daly and Angela Lansbury won, but Ethel Merman lost for the original production.
"I think Patrick Stewart in 'Macbeth' is definitely a contender for best actor in a play," he says. "It's interesting — in America, if you the star of a science-fiction television show, usually that's how people think of you and that's it. But in England, there's a tradition — with him, Ian McKellen and the people who do the Harry Potter movies — they go back to the stage and continue to do things like 'Macbeth,' 'Othello' and 'King Lear.'"
Stewart spent the first few decades of his career on British stages while working with the Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare companies before gaining TV fame in the U.S. as Captain Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." His "Macbeth" is a rather bloody update set in some unspecified Eastern European or Balkan country instead of ancient Scotland. Recently, he won best-actor trophies at the Evening Standard and Theatrical Management Association Awards for the London production that preceded its debut on the Great White Way.
What about The Seafarer's Jim Norton? Rock 'N' Roll's Rufus Sewell? And to mention Claire Danes as a prospective nominee is only based on her name value. She was no better than Jennifer Garner in Cyrano (who was also fine, but also not nominee calibre).
Posted by: Jon Mitchell | March 31, 2008 at 08:56 AM